A Man with a Lightning Charged Axe

After my attempt to give Thrud a proper burial, I make my way back to the surface. I'm left with more questions than answers. Why did Fire Emblem become real? Is this some form of Outrealm bullshit? Why did Thrud ask me to find this Celestia lady? Why was a unicorn using dark magic? How was Thrud still trapped? How long was he trapped? What were the experiments he was being used to power?

I hope whoever Celestia is won't fall over dead like Thrud did. That would make me think there is some malevolent force toying with me for its own amusement. I don't even know where to start looking for Celestia if she's even alive. What if she's another dragon? What exactly are the benefits of consuming Thrud's blood?

Thinking too much about it won't solve anything, I need to make a bed or get somewhere to sleep, rest, and I guess start looking for a way out of the forest. Shouldn't take too long for the bed since lots of the cloth is well preserved, finding a way out of a forest that actively wants to kill me? Thats going to be far harder.

I find my way to what remains of the upper floors and start looking for a decent bed and room. I find one that has mostly darker hues, and an overall nighttime theme. Whoever was here had good taste, though the overall size of the furniture is odd. Actually, now that I'm thinking about it all of the furniture has been odd, and the size and shape of the doorways. They don't seem to be made for a humanoid form at all. Whoever built this castle wasn't a standard fantasy race. Not that that matters to me unless I'm here when or if they return.

After getting everything set so I feel safe going to sleep, I start removing my armor, can't sleep in it without getting cramps and sores and that wouldn't be the best. I should see if I can get some more padding so I can sleep with it on. As I remove my undershirt my reflection catches my eye in a mirror that is built into a desk I used to block the doorway. I have a symbol that wasn't there before. It isn't a tattoo; it looks more like a birthmark, a stylized thunderbolt that crosses my whole chest. My mind instantly thinks of the Brand of the Exalt that is on Chrom's shoulder and in Lucina's eye, as well as the Brand of Loptous on Julius' forehead. This is proof that Thrud's blood has impowered me somehow, though I still am not sure how.

At this point I'm fighting to keep my eyes open, while I felt amazing when I woke up after my experience in the secret lab it seems that was a second wind that has finally run out. I collapse onto the bed and let sleep take me.

In the Dreamscape

I'm floating, drifting, quietly through the void of space.

It's peaceful.

I would love for this feeling to last forever, but I know this is a dream. One that I must wake from. I made a promise to Thrud and I'll be damned if I don't try to keep it. But for now, I'm resting.

Unfortunately, my peace is disturbed. Something from outside me has entered my dream.

"Who slumbers in our old room? Not one of our little ponies it seems," A somewhat somber feminine voice, one I would find comforting if I were expecting it.

"Who violates the privacy of a man's dreams?" I reply before trying to locate the dream walker. "Is it not right for a guest to introduce themselves when entering someone's home?"

"Forgive us, it has been quite some time since we have visited a lucid dreamer. We are Princess Luna." A dark blue unicorn with wings melds out of the starlight making up my dream. "We had sensed somepony start dreaming in our old chambers in the Everfree. Since the forest is so dangerous now, we thought to check on whomever was lost and trapped so we could notify the guard to rescue them."

I am baffled by the appearance of a talking horse almost as much as I am by how quickly I seem to be meeting new people. And of course, now that I've met someone new, I have a slew of new questions.

"Excuse me, I need a bit." What do I even begin with? "I seem to be very far away from home, where am I? What's the nearest town? Your old chambers?"

My confusion has to have been conveyed near perfectly as the horse seems taken aback for a second by my flurry of questions.

"You are within the old capital of Equestria, and that is within the Everfree Forest. Have you suffered from amnesia? How could you arrive where you are and not know it?"

"Well it isn't my fault I woke up in the woods with nothing but my armor and axe, I know plenty of things. Though I bet not all of them are useful now..."

"You simply awoke in the Everfree and wandered into our old home? Were you not hunted by Timberwolves, Manticores, and other dark creatures?"

"I was but none of them lasted long, can I please get some more answers? I love camping as much as the next guy, but a real bath would be great, and also what are you? I've not seen anything like you before."

"If you fought off the creatures that hunted you, you must be a skilled warrior." The horse nods her head approvingly. "Ask your questions, we will answer them to the best of our ability."

The next morning

As Luna lowered the moon to allow her sister's sun to rise her mind was focused on the strange warrior she met in the dreamscape. He called himself Hector and claimed he was a human, something she had never heard of before. Not only that but his magical aura was strikingly similar to an old friend's.

Unable to contain her excitement she disappears in a flash of light, reappearing on her sister's balcony just as Celestia finishes raising the sun. "Sister, We have wonderful news!"

"Luna? What is it?" The elder of the two has had her mind on several less pleasant reports, so her sister's good news might be enough to make this week more positive than negative.

"We have discovered somepony who has met Thrud!"

"He is still alive? Where is he and what has he been doing? Thank Naga!"

"That is where the news is not entirely positive, the human as he called himself, he says that he freed Thrud from a prison beneath our old castle, but that our old friend had lost much of his strength due to Sombra's experiments and perished not long after being freed."

"No..." Being given news that a friend you thought lost has been seen, but has perished is bittersweet. She would have loved nothing more than to see and talk with him again. But the human as Luna called it may have been able to grant Thrud the rest he sought.

"That is not all, Thrud blessed the human, and the human-he called himself Hector-has sworn to carry on his mission. Sister this means that we may be able to see this through within the next one hundred years!"

Naga's divine mission has its end in sight for the princesses, but peace is not so easily maintained.

"Luna, have you seen the reports from our agents in Griffonia?"

Her sister stops, confused, "We have not, is something happening over the mountains?"

"There haven't been any reports recently, it is well after the scheduled time for them to be sent yet we have not received any. I hope this does not mean what I think it means." Her ability to hope makes her a wonderful ruler, but what allowed her to reign unquestioned was not hope but rationality. She knew that war was coming however much she despised it.

"The Giffons are preparing for war? Sister we must renew the guard's training, we cannot be caught unprepared!"

"It is not just the Griffons, the seal on Sombra is weakening. If our predictions are accurate the seal will fail during the Griffon's invasion, and I fear that the ensuing chaos might also free Discord. All of this has become a perfect storm. Sister we may have to intervene personally." Dread fills the elder sister as she foresees repeated catastrophes in the future.

"You are not alone, remember your student, and Mi Amore Cadenza. We can and will prevail."

"I hope you are correct Luna, I dread the coming years, but the storm will pass." Her eyes wander to a tome of brilliant gold that glows with a soft and comforting light. A tome that enhanced her already great power. Her sister follows her gaze, "Do you mean to use it, sister?"

"If Sombra returns I must use it. We still haven't found six of the weapons, and with the Griffon Emperor using Maltet, we only have the Staff and Aureola under our control. If the Crystal Empire returns Sombra won't hesitate to use Apocalypse so I must counter him."

"Hector claims he had Armads in his possession but that it went missing shortly before he found his way to our old castle. We should try to search the Everfree for it with whatever ponypower we can spare during our war preparations."

"Truly? Has it been under our muzzles all this time?" If it had been the shame she would feel would be unimaginable.

"We don't know, but we should return to the old castle to give Thrud the rights he deserves as Hector was unable to do so himself."

"You are right, I will make the time to do so in a few days, I'll send a letter to Twilight to meet with and assist Hector before I meet with him."

"We already told Twilight of him in the Dreamscape, she should be well on her way to assist him out of the forest now."

"I see, thank you. I wonder how my little ponies will react to the news of the coming war, we can't keep it a secret for long."

"We can only hope that the spirit of harmony watches over us as she has before."

The two sisters proceed inside of Canterlot castle, both making plans for the coming years, Equestria is woefully underprepared for conflict on a scale as large as a full invasion from the Griffons so there is much work to be done, both in the light and the dark.